There were 17,944 applicants and 6,562 matriculants for the 2014 application cycle whose submissions to U.S. COMs were completed through the AACOM application service (AACOMAS), and used in this report.

The report compiles specified characteristics of the AACOMAS applicants and matriculants pool to generate a comprehensive profile of the osteopathic medical student class that entered the nation’s COMs in 2014.

Data points gathered in the report include student characteristics such as gender, age, race/ethnicity, military experience, baccalaureate major, GPA/MCAT scores, parent and family information, feeder colleges, and permanent residence. This information is used to generate statistics, trends, and other comparative figures and evaluations about the AACOMAS applicant and matriculant profile, providing insight to osteopathic medical education (OME). In addition, each AACOMAS-participating COM receives a detailed report of their individual data, and relative to the other U.S. COMs.

Highlights of the report display:

53.9 percent of AACOMAS applicants, and 56.8 percent of new matriculants were males. This is consistent with the 2013 data for which 53.6 percent of applicants and 55.6 percent of matriculants were males.

The mean age of applicants and matriculants in 2014 was 25, and the median age was 24. These findings were the same in 2013, though the total number of matriculants aged 20 or younger increased from 25 in 2013, to 47 in 2014.

Students identifying themselves as members of historically underrepresented ethnic/racial minority (URM) groups accounted for 12.8 percent of 2014 applicants and 8.2 percent of matriculants. Compared to 2013, these figures represent an increases in both URM applicants and matriculants to 11.7 and 7.3 percent, respectively.

The life sciences continue to be the most identified undergraduate/baccalaureate degree major—68 percent of applicants and 69.1 percent of matriculants. The second most common undergraduate degree is in the social sciences—10.8 percent of applicants and 10.7 percent of matriculants.

The percentage of 2014 applicants who reported themselves to be the first generation in their families to attend college was 24.2; 22.2 percent of matriculants reported to be first generation college students. This measurement has decreased since 2013 when 25.3 percent of applicants and 25.8 percent of matriculants reported for this fact.

In 2014, 98 percent of applicants and 98.6 percent of matriculants were either U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents. Residents of Canada were the largest number of foreign applicants.